My SWB TT Z32...

[pablo]

Good to hear it's fixable. Now tell me about the truck, looks interesting

[jap.slapper]

That's our mobile Ops room mate, it's an ex Police forensic vehicle (though they can't have had too many homicides down Avon and Somerset way as it only had 6,000 miles on the clock when we acquired it).

Inside it's been kitted out with a soundproofed briefing room (plasma screens/projector's/DVR's/fibre optic/COFDM etc.) that can be configured as sleeping quarters with loads of lockers and such like for personal kit and equipment. It has a separate Ops Room and workshop area at the back (with a comprehensive monitor/recording suite, UHF/VHF and encrypted SATCOM telecommunications, printers, telescopic and pneumatic masts, global AV/RGS/EO and thermal camera setup and testing bench) all fully self sufficient with 1000 watt generators and solar panels.

We haven't really used it that much up here as I have a separate fixed Ops Room and workshop on site and being on top of a mountain I have a 20km+ clear line of sight view for range testing equipment, though it does come in handy now and again.

[pablo]

Holy shit and theres me thinking it was just a race support vehicle. Nice truck

[jap.slapper]

By my reckoning I've just saved myself a £1600+ Land Rover bill by sourcing and replacing the parts myself.

Rather than shell out £800 on Land Rover replacing the old air suspension compressor I took a punt on refurbishing it with a £30 refurb kit from a specialist supplier. Removing it took a bit of guess work but it came off easily enough.

It wasn't actually anywhere near as hard as I thought it was going to be to strip the compressor itself down and carry out the refurb. Effectively the piston and rod needed to be removed and then it was a case of replacing a plastic sleeve and some other bits and then reassembling in reverse order. The next part of the strip down involved replacing all of the knackered silica beads, filters and rubber 'o' rings in the air drier element. It took a few hours but was pretty straight forward.

I held fire on replacing it until I had replaced the knackered alternator, again it was a pretty straight forward affair and only took a few hours. I had put it on hold until the special viscous fan spanners had arrived but as soon as they were here I cracked on.

Once the alternator had been fitted and all belts etc. had been replaced I fitted the compressor and crossed my fingers. Having replaced a 60amp fuse and reconnected the battery I turned the key and what do you know, it fired up first time with all warning lights now gone.

The suspension goes up and down and the battery/alternator is showing a shade over 14v so jobs a good'en

Now why is it that this bloody zed is taking so long?!?

[pablo]

Because the disco is a daily drive and you 'need it'
The Zed is a big boys toy and you 'want it',

Good to hear about how you got on with the air ride on the disco as i'm looking at options for my explorer. Might just start of with trying to get some leaf springs made for it as i want to stiffen up the back end for towing.

[jap.slapper]

Because the disco is a daily drive and you 'need it'
The Zed is a big boys toy and you 'want it',

Good to hear about how you got on with the air ride on the disco as i'm looking at options for my explorer. Might just start of with trying to get some leaf springs made for it as i want to stiffen up the back end for towing.

Yeah having the Disco on the road makes things easier, that's true. Though I'm not sure about the zed being a big boys toy, in fact the majority of zed owners that I've met would be better suited to the big girls blouse category

Now leaf springs sound like a winner, let's be honest you can't really go wrong with a couple of strips of metal

[pablo]

Just been looking on a US site about converting the truck to shocks so can ditch the air bags. Bad enough having 1 air bag in the car (Alan) without another 2 under the truck. Especislly as when towing you have to switch off the self levelling suspension......So whats the fecking point in having it.

[jap.slapper]

Just been looking on a US site about converting the truck to shocks so can ditch the air bags. Bad enough having 1 air bag in the car (Alan) without another 2 under the truck. Especislly as when towing you have to switch off the self levelling suspension......So whats the fecking point in having it.

On a work horse especially I think it's a case of the simpler the better.

[jap.slapper]

This sounds like a bit of a beast, 8 seconds in full street trim!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-MUSTANG- ... 2a43f5faf8

I suppose that's what 1200bhp will do for you

[jap.slapper]

Anyway back to the zed


This is the extent of my winter prep', clearly we won't be having the new garage and workshop built this side of Christmas so I've gone for the pikey option.....at least it's dry under there I suppose






Aside from the increased noise I can't see any reason why a simple 24" down pipe exiting out of the side can't be used to replace the full exhaust system






Finally the hoses for the turbo water pipes are sorted










and the heater matrix pipework is now looped with a 90 degree coupler






I eventually got round to stripping the rear sub-frame so that I can get cracking on burning out the old OEM rubber bushes, the plan was to send this off to be sandblasted and powder coated however I think I'm just going to rub it back and then primer/paint it myself








I whipped the diff off (this is the original TT diff) and am now thinking that swapping it for an NA diff may be a better option. I believe the NA diff offers better acceleration over the TT diff but at the sacrifice of a bit at the top end.

The carbon one piece prop that I have was originally designed for use with an NA diff. The machined adaptor plate currently fitted to the TT diff (shown in the picture) was made up to enable it to be used with a TT diff, I presume therefore that the NA diff is slightly longer than the TT version.







The rest of the adjustable bits have been left attached to the hubs and driveshaft's, these will just be getting a quick clean and re-greasing over the next day or so











I'm actually looking forward to getting this lot cleaned up, re-painted and then put back together, there are so many parts sat on the shelf just waiting to be fitted that it would make a nice change to actually get some of it done now






Still going though......